London midday: Shares comes off the top

7th Jul 2009 12:11

Prices are off the top despite expectations of a moderately firmer opening on Wall Street. Earlier shares had been given a lift by the release of the latest British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) survey showed a rebound of confidence levels in the second quarter.Britain may have seen the worst of the recession, but the economy remains fragile and unemployment is still set to rise sharply, the BCC survey suggested.Miners have recovered some of the losses run up yesterday, helped by the late pick-up on Wall Street. Kazakhmys, Vedanta and Lonmin have rallied the most so far this morning.Miner Xstrata is also wanted, as rumours resurface that Brazilian mining titan Vale is contemplating reviving bid talks with the Anglo-Swiss company. Any bid approach by the Brazilian company would complicate Xstrata's own overtures towards Anglo American.Defence group Cobham has won a five year, Indefinite Delivery, Definite Quantity (IDDQ) contract from the US Army to provide Microclimate Cooling Systems to the Air Warrior program office.Housebuilder Persimmon has seen both volume and revenues improve recently and expects that trend to continue against the weak conditions experienced throughout the second half of 2008. Sector peers Bovis Homes - due to issue its own trading statement later this week - Barratt Developments and Bellway move higher in sympathy.Irish building materials giant CRH has forecast it will only scrape a profit in the first half of 2009, with the second half expected to be worse as it bears the brunt of the collapse of global construction markets. Profit before tax is expected to be of the order of €0.1bn. This compares with a first-half 2008 profit before tax of €0.6bn.Recruitment firm Michael Page's gross profit in the second quarter fall 45% and it warned of a challenging third quarter. Operating profit from trading activities was similar to the first quarter at around £3m. The group also said headcount has been decreased by 429 (10.4%) in the quarter to 3,705 at June 2009, which is 33.1% lower than the peak at 30 June 2008. Blue-collar recruitment and training specialist Staffline said performance in the first half of 2009 has been in line with management's expectations. The group said the current financial year is seeing the full benefit of the new OnSites opened during the second half of 2008 and some additional client wins. This has been partially offset by falling volumes with some clients, particularly those operating in the automotive sector, it said.Self-storage group Big Yellow reported a 6% drop in quarterly store revenues but said trading conditions have continued to show an improvement. Total store revenue for the first quarter ended 30 June was £13.5m compared with £14.3m for the same quarter last year, but revenue rose 1% from the quarter to 31 March 2009. JJB Sports has rallied around executive chairman Sir David Jones after allegations of a conflict of interest as it confirmed he has a £1.5m loan outstanding with Mike Ashley, the owner of JJB's main rival Sports Direct. JJB today said the £1.5m business loan was used for investment in Advanced Network Technologies, a private technology company in which Sir David and his family are majority investors.Home shopping company N Brown Group saw turnover increase by 5.1% in the 18 weeks ended 4 July, with contributions from all major customer and product groups.Currency translation benefits and strong demand in the Middle East have kept support services group Cape on track in the first half, despite some order delays in Australia.Africa focused diamond producer Petra Diamonds said annual output increased five fold to over 1m carats while sales declined and trading conditions remained challenging.Drycleaner and work wear provider Johnson Service said it expects pre-tax profit before items for the year to be 'satisfactory' given the current economic climate.Dechra Pharm, the pharmaceutical firm focused on the veterinary sector, said trading for the year to June is in line with management's expectations. Group revenues are ahead by approximately 15% in comparison with last year.Software systems provider Total Systems has been hit by a sudden drop in demand, forcing it to warn on full-year turnover.FTSE 100 - RisersKazakhmys (KAZ) 620.50p +4.90%Vedanta Resources (VED) 1,354.00p +4.15%Lonmin (LMI) 1,103.00p +4.06%ICAP (IAP) 460.00p +3.60%FTSE 100 - FallersFresnillo (FRES) 460.00p -3.92%Associated British Foods (ABF) 767.50p -1.85%Friends Provident Group (FP.) 62.19p -1.75%Cable & Wireless (CW.) 131.20p -1.50%